Packmates
by Acedia the Apathetic
Summary: After an insane alchemist named Krista turns a group of our favorite characters into Chimera, how will they manage to get out of this one? Will anything ever be the same, or will they and all their allies band together and fight this new threat off? Rated for T language and occaisional violence.
1. Chapter 1

1

"Why would anyone decide to use this place to do alchemy in?" Ling asked. Ed snorted. "Are you serious? This is a perfect place for any lowlife alchemist to do their insane experiments. It's abandoned, out of the way, and looks beat up. No one in there right mind would walk in unless they had a reason to." "So, the question is, is the place going to fall over the minute we step inside. You do remember that the last time we had to ask that question, your leg would have been broken if it wasn't metal." Ling reminded the alchemist. "But we don't have to ask that." Ed declared, looking victoriously over the saplings and ivy that had long overgrown the house and spread around the forest floor. "Look through the windows." He commanded "They're boarded up." Ling said, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on, as they always did when Ed started to act like this. "Look closer." Ed directed. Ling, taking the path of least resistance, obeyed. "Ok... I see pink. Neon pink." The headache intensified at the sheer, glaring colour of the paint. "And any paint wouldn't be so bright if it was in an abandoned house!" Ed cried. "Well, going in doesn't seem to be any more life threatening than usual, so we'll do it." Ling finally relented."Let's just hope Darius and Heinkel are in here."

The inside of the house was bad enough that, if they ever had to return, Ling would make sure they brought sunglasses. "Ugh." Ed complained "I want to tear down these walls with alchemy." The hall alone was an interior designers nightmare. Garish wallpaper lined the walls, blaring a rainbow of colours that neon could never hope to describe and increased Ling's headache an unprecedented amount. The table had been painted purple with blinding green highlights. On it sat a picture that's subjects had been covered in a substance that was so almost glowingly red that there was no telling whether it was blood or some substitute made to both fit into the colour scheme and mimic blood at the same time. Whatever mad-man or women who lived in this hellish dollhouse was clearly either immune to their surroundings, or completely colour blind. "We should burn this place down." Greed suggested."It would be the only way to fix this disaster. _Envy_ has better taste than whoever decorated this place, and you've seen his outfit." Greed had let Ling be in control for this, as he was better at stealth, though he had made it clear that if the person who'd kidnapped his "Pocessesions" tried to kill his chimera henchmen, he would be the one to kill the guy.

As Ling and Ed stepped into the radioactive pink and electric yellow themed living room that they had seen through the boarded up window, a weighted piece of furniture of some sort fell on their heads. Ed was immediately knocked unconcious from the heavy blow, but Ling, of course, was only knocked down. The couch stopped just far enough from the floor to let the presumably knocked out victims of an assault from dropping pink furniture lie comfortably on the floor with only the damage of a possible concussion and a painful bruise. "Oh, you're not unconcious!" Came the voice of the madwomen who was responsible for the decor and the couch. "That's interesting. Usually that happens with head trauma." Ling saw her start to advance and began to use his ultimate shield. "Oh well!" She chirped as a dart hit Ling in the forehead. The last thing he saw before the cocktail of drugs knocked him unconcious was her pink high heel shoes with strawberry red bows blurring with the yellow wood floor to create a half-decent looking shade of orange.

Sorry the first chapter is so short, but I don't want to put in too many more words when I already have enough to describe this. Next chapter will probably be longer. Also, Ed shall not be a Neko... I've saved that honor for someone else. Ed shall be... a _! You can go fill in the blank yourself for now. The Neko is _. Same thing there as well. Please review, or I'll go full logical fallacy mode and make Ed a flying jellyfish chimera out of rage and sadness. But then the fic would be bad and you wouldn't review... Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

2

Greed woke up handcuffed to something thick and metallic, which was roughly who his head felt. That was new, he thought, but he hadn't been shot with knockout drugs before. They were surprisingly effective actually. He resolved to keep that in mind. Looking down at his hands, he saw that he wouldn't be able to use his Ultimate shield to cut out of the handcuffs. He had probably cut through some already, so they were arranged so he couldn't do it again. He couldn't tell what the metal post he was cuffed to was made out of, but the scratches around where he had been able to reach told him that if his feet hadn't been cuffed to some other post as well, preventing him from getting to close, he would have been able to cut through him. "You're awake quickly." the woman from before noted from behind him. She closed the door and made her way to in front of him She was wearing those heels from before and a purple and blue mini-dress. Her blond hair was done in pigtails with pink elastics and she was wearing a gold tiara on her head that was the only part of her outfit that didn't look completely hidious. On her face and bare arms and shoulders there were deep scratch marks. Behind her, on a sparkly leash, she dragged...

A panther.

It was tied up and muzzled, and he could see the wounds from where that insane woman must have hit it to get it like that. Still, in the animals bright green eyes, there was still untamed, defiant ferocity burning that seemed to say "I will bite your head off if you give me any opportunity, you bitch." After seeing what she had done to the creature, Greed couldn't object to that. Wait. Greed thought. Why the hell did she decide to bring a panther into here? With an impeding sense of dread, he looked down at the floor. Chalk lines traced it, making a transmutation circle. Oh shit. He thought. She's going try to turn me into chimera, isn't she. Greed wasn't sure if that would actually work properly on him, but he was certain the results would be bad either way. An alchemic backfire from the transmutation (Yes, he sometimes actually learned something from Ed's mad alchemy lectures.) would be bad, but being turned into a chimera, especially by this women, might be worse . As she spoke again, the homunculus's suspicions were confirmed. "You'll make me such a cute little neko!" She exclaimed."Don't worry, after studying those other chimera, it will definitely go absolutely great! You're going to be..." she twirled," Kawaii!" She bent down. "But before that, you should get to know a bit about who you'll be transmutated with. This;" she said, gesturing towards the panther, "is Spirit. He's a panther. Now, I know he might not be that colourful, but I think he'll really be just perfect for you! He was a gift from one of my friends. I raised him since he was just a cub. He's a little iffy sometimes,"(Spirit growled at this)"But he just adores me like I'm his mother. Panthers play with each other by fighting all the time, so him scratching me is his way of saying that he loves me." The alchemist smiled at Greed. He was unpleasently reminded of the mouths of Prides shadows.

"Now, let's start!" She said, slamming her hands to the transmutation circle.

The thing that Greed remembered about the transmutation was mostly pain, screaming, from both him and Spirit, and, probably the worst, hysterical giggling from that psychopathic fucking _bitch._ How the fuck could she be laughing? Oh right, she was a psychopathic bitch. Having your body restructured _hurt_. Sure, it hurt a little to use his ultimate shield. After all, he was drawing carbon out of his own body, and that was painful, as cells need carbon to not be drawn into one area instead of being where it's supposed to be. But his body was being completely restructured, in an attempt to fuse it with something that it wasn't supposed to be fused with. When the cat's screams disappeared and he finally just passed out from pain, which was really a testament to how much this hurt, it was a relief to be unconcious.

* * *

Greed woke up in somewhere unfamiliar, his body feeling faintly numb. "Wha...What's going on?" He stammered, trying to figure out why he was in this strange place, and where the hell was he anyway? "Oooh, finally!" A woman cheered. "You can see how you look now!" Her blinding clothes made Greed just want close his eyes and look away. "Who the hell are you?"he asked, slowly regaining his sense. "Oh, you can just call me Krista." She replied offhandedly."Now here, take this and see how you look!" She demanded, thrusting a mirror into his hands. He held it up to his face. The first thing he noticed is that his normal ears were gone. In their place were black cat ears on the top of his head. His hair was noticably longer and shinier. His eyes now had a colour gradient from red to green, and his teeth were sharper. Yeah, he thought as he cut his tongue on them. Definitely sharper. Krista snatched the mirror out of his hand and walked out the the doorway before reappearing in front of the glass. "This glass is reinforced. If you do somehow manage to get out, I'll shoot you. Please have a pleasant stay." She called, her voice muffled by the glass. Greed blinked.

Then, finally, the sedatives that Krista had pumped into him wore off. "LET ME GO, YOU %#* !" He yelled, slashing at the glass with his ultimate shield. He had no idea what the glass was reinforced with, but it didn't break. After 15 minutes of this, he sat down. "Ling." He said. "Yes?" Ling responded."Where are we?" He had obviously remained unconcious for longer then Greed. "That Krista bitch turned us into a panther chimera and locked us in here." "WHAT?!" Ling yelled. Greed waited a minute to let Ling calm down, a process that involved a few colourful Xingese explatives. (Greed really had had no idea that the kid knew so many swear words! He would have to get him to teach them to him later.) "Well, I guess that explains why we now have tail." "Wait... I don't think you're joking, are you.""Nope." Greed attempted to "feel his body", using one of the meditation techniques Ling had drilled into his head. To his surprise, it actually worked for once. He could feel the tail that was stemming out of the base of his spine. He moved it so he could actually see it. It was covered in short black fur. The moment he saw it, he sat down and started making a claw with his hand."What are you doing?" Ling asked. "If I'm part cat now, I should have retractable claws." Greed replied. "I'm pretty sure it doesn't activate from you making that hand gesture." Ling noted. Greed ignored him. After the 14th try, claws sprang out of his hand. He decided to try use his shield on them. As it spread across his claws, Greed smiled." Y'know, this might not be all bad."

Told you it would be longer. Review in thanks. We haven't seen Ed yet. He could still very well be a jelly.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm begging you for reviews here now! I'm sure you're positively elated.

Riza Hawkeye was getting madder with each second this Krista women chatted on about shoes. There was one other chimera in the zoo cell block, and she recognized him. She had known Ling, and Ed had told her he'd been turned into the homunculus Greed. He had been transmuted with a cat of some sort and he was sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking like he was hoping that she didn't explode. She couldn't blame him. This women had, in an excruciatingly painful manner, transmuted her with a hawk, a fact that she was already mad about due to both her being turned into a chimera, albeit a human looking one who wasn't in incredible pain or danger of dying, and a complete and utter lack of creativity on Krista's part. Honestly, a hawk? That was what this woman was going with? That was the best she could do? It was petty, but Riza certainly minded that Krista was going to ruin her life in the most lackluster way that she could think of. Then, once she regained conciousness after complete torment , this women threatened her with a gun and went on to discuss fashion, not only then, but when she was wearing an outfit that made her eyes burn, never mind that her eyesight was now ridiculously boosted. All in all, she wanted to crush the woman's blond skull before jumping into Roy's arms. (Though maybe in her apartment; She didn't want anyone to see them together like that.) Finally, just as the lieutenant's vision began being tinted with red, Krista left.

Now that she was gone, Riza inspected her body. She judged that her fingernails, being sharp enough to have drawn quite a bit of blood during Kristas speech about clothes that was meant to imply that she needed more neon to complete her wardrobe, must have been made sharper. The wing-ish things that were on her arms seemed only capable of gliding, though they were somehow miraculously able to fit under her uniform. Even though she didn't understand how the logic worked out, Hawkeye had long learned to only question things like this when she had someone who could explain it and the time to have it explained to her. Though the lieutenant had plenty of the latter, the former would elude her until her captured superior came along, hopefully not transmuted. That would be the worst possible thing that could happen. If somebody hurt the colonel like that... Well, the lieutenant didn't like to think about what she would do if somebody did that to her Ro- to Mr. Mustang, but she didn't need to. She could remember how many rounds she had fired into that Lust bitch when she had told her and Al that she had killed the colonel. She also remembered that he had not really been killed and had burned the female homunculus to death when she had threatened Riza, so that was a good indicator that "Krista" would be a charred, bullethole hole filled corpse if Riza joined forces with her commanding officer, perhaps with a few slash marks if they could set some animal on her. But, going back to what she was concentrating on, there weren't any other physical changes.

Finally, Ling seemed to have gathered up enough bravery to talk to her without preparing for an explosion. "Hey." He said. Scratch that, it was Greed. Riza had learned to analyze speech patterns early in her career, and besides that, that was not Ling's voice. The lieutenant stayed silent, but Greed continued the increasingly one-sided conversation. "Do you have any idea what the glass is made of? My ultimate shield didn't make a dent in it." Lucky for Hawkeye, she had long mastered the art of ignoring inane conversation while picking up anything important that might be mentioned from "Strictly military meetings" that everyone who could make her attend hosted, whether it be the prospect of making the crucial decision of whether Elysia would be cuter in a unicorn costume or a mermaid costume, (Hughes, though she would have done almost anything to have him schedule another one.) to the prospect of marriage. ( Her grandfather, General Grumman, who had recommended, to Rizas embaressment, a theme of dark orange for the wedding theme.) This technique had her glean some useful information, such as the fact that Greed had left the rest of the Homunculi and that Ed was now in his gang.

Riza had gotten to the point that she had started to respond to the Homunculus's talking when Krista came into the room, dragging someone behind her. Her thoughts unified into a single panicked phrase, frantickly screaming " _Please don't be Roy, Please don't be Roy, Please don't be Roy."_ Her pleas to the universe didn't matter though, as the black hair and blue uniform of her commanding officer sprang out on her. The lieutenant's emotions were paralyzed by shock for a minute. They had the courtesy to wait until Krista left the room and Roy was locked in a glass cell. Then they could be held back no longer. Raging, they lept upon her.

And her heart, so painstakingly put back together after Ishval, after thinking Roy was dead and she was forever alone, broke.

"Roy." She whispered, gasping for breath after almost drowning in her own rage and despair, her feeling of uselessness, her sense that all their hopes of peace and redemption had been crushed, and she was the one who had been inadvertently responsible for it. The voice telling her "You failed him." in the back of her mind. Riza started screaming, feeling hot tears start to flow down her face. " _ROY! ROY, WAKE UP! PLEASE! ROY! WAKE UP! ROY!_ Please... Wake up..." Hawkeye collapsed into sobs on the floor, her knees buckling, rage giving way to despair as she prayed that Roy wouldn't suffer organ failiure or lethal head trauma or fatal blood loss or any of the others in the dozens of painful ways that the transmutation might lead to death. She silently cursed the thick glass wall that seperated her from Roy, keeping her from being where she was meant to be; at his side. She couldn't even check to see if he was still alive or if Krista had locked up a corpse. The worst thing was she didn't think Krista would care one way or another as long as Roy had animal ears, which he did, along with a tail. Both of them were a dark brown.

Finally, Riza picked herself up and wiped the tears away from her face with her sleeve. She couldn't abandon hope just yet. Roy _would_ get up. They would form a plan. They would rescue their fellow prisoners, spectacularly defeat Krista, and foil the Homunculi's plan. They would succeed.

It was just a matter of time.


	4. Chapter 4

Finally, an update! As always, please review. I really appreciate my first ones. I'm going to verify what Roy is this chapter, so wait no more! Also, the two nail polishes that I mention, I actually have, specifically the most ridiculous ones I could find in the collection.

Chapter 4

Roy felt hung over. What had he been doing on a trip to inspect a new hydraulic pump that could have resulted in this course of events, namely him drinking, with the lieutenant with him? She always kept him sober, not through guns, but through her very presence. He couldn't risk them having sex, not with the aura of professionalism they had to maintain, and she was so beautiful, not that she would ever acknowledge that, that with impaired reasoning, he might not be able to resist. But he was cold, alone, and on a fairly hard surface so it was unlikely unless he had fallen off the bed and, through some miracle of drunken drowsiness, not woken up. He never thought he would be relieved about something like that, but there he was. "Roy!" Someone yelled. Even through the pounding headache and the distinct feeling that there was something wrong with his ears, Roy could recognize his subordinate's voice anywhere. "Riza..?" He mumbled, his voice hoarse for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with why he had been drinking? "ROY! YOU'RE OKAY!" He looked up a bit, surprised at how happy Riza sounded, never mind that she was yelling and...

Caught sight of a glass wall and a hallway between them? Dear god, today just stood no chance of being remotely worth waking up to. Ignoring how much the action hurt his neck, (Probably just sleeping on a hard surface in what was best described as a display case.) he lifted his head the rest of the way. The lieutenant, barring her obvious relief and joy at him waking up, looked much the same as usual, her uniform as immaculate as ever, but something was different. Were those feathers in her hair? And why were her nails so sharp? The lieutenant wasn't one for manicures, a fact which had never stopped Rebecca from pouncing on her with her latest Boogie Nights orange or Unicornicopia purple.

"Any particular reason we're in display cases with me hungover?" Roy asked "No, of course not. All of us just decided to all get drunk and lock ourselves in this place for fun." Somebody said from beside him. He didn't recognize the voice, but it was definitely male. "Greed, stop." Riza said, aiming "The Hawk's Gaze", as it had been nicknamed, at the cell beside him. "He's with Edward now." Riza replied in answer to his opening mouth. "More like Ed's with me." Greed said. Doing the best glare he could through metal, Roy reinstated his yet unanswered question. "So, why are we here?" Lieutenant Hawkeye seemed at a loss for words for a second, her eyes widening for a split second, before telling him " We were transmuted with animals." Roy felt light headed. What!? They were... Chimeras?! No, no, no, no, this couldn't be happening. The lieutenant had been transmuted with some sort of bird, hopefully something more creative than a hawk, she had been hurt! That one thought transformed disbelief into rage in an instant. "Who did this?" He demanded. It was Greed who responded "Some bitch named Krista, who has a fetish for chimeras." Mustang spent a good ten minutes mapping out the pain that Krista would face. A bit less than Lust had, he decided, but then, that bitch could literally regenerate her whole body from nothing except her philosipher's stone. Suddenly, Roy thought of the first question that he should have asked. "What animal was I transmuted with anyway?"

Riza was quick to answer. "It would seem to be some sort of dog, sir, judging by the ears and tail." "The what?" Roy frantically felt around his head and discovered he did indeed have ears, triangular, soft ones. To preserve the remains of his dignity, Roy merely looked for the tail instead of awkwardly patting. It was there, full, long and reddish brown. "It looks awfully fluffy for a dog tail." he noted. "Well, I might be mistaken..." Riza murmered. Suddenly, someone spoke in the cell adjacent to Roy. "She actually came up with a good pun!" Ling laughed. "What do you mean?" The lieutenant asked. "She transmuted him with a wolf." The two military officers blinked in silence. Then, Riza broke the silence with "WHAT! She could come up with that, but not with anything other than the most obvious possible option for me?!" Roy was then hit by the speeding bus that was the reality of his situation. He was kidnapped. The lieutenant was kidnapped. Ling was kidnapped. Then they were all turned into chimeras. The fact that nobody would be coming for them for at least a month, since that was when the military would come for them and there certainly wasn't a chance that anyone that wasn't Ed, who had reportedly been captured be Krista, could find them before then.

The speeding bus then proceeded to demand that he give the contents of his stomach to the floor as payment for the bus toll. Roy's vision swirled a bit as his knees gave out, his body telling him that he wants to be on the floor for this. His throat burned as his stomach forced up acidic bile and partially digested, acid soaked food. "Oh, are you not feeling so good?" A familiar high voice said from behind him and a bit to the left. "That's a shame. We'll have to get the mess all cleaned up" Yes. Roy thought. Come in here and clean it up. She walked in front of his cell and... pressed her palm against the wall, the mess being eradicated with alchemy. God dammit. Then she opened her mouth...

Still a bit of time left before Ed! Just wait for it guys. In the meantime, enjoy reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Yeah, update! Please review, and if you have critisim, please tell my what I need to work on! Also... * _takes breath*_ THE FOX SQUIRREL (SCIURUS NIGER) CAN COMMONLY POSESS A BROWN-YELLOW COAT OF FUR!

* * *

At first, the only thing Ed was vaguely aware of the faint sounds of some high pitched voice chattering behind him. He was lying on something uncomfortable, cold and a dusty as well. Not to mention that his wrists hurt. He tilted his head a little to the right. He winced. God, why did that action hurt like that? He then tried to lift his head. Fuck, it hurt like hell, but he could do it. He completed the action before expending a bit more of his willpower to look around. The first word he thought of was bright mauve. He hadn't thought that was actually possible. He remembered the rooms he had explored... How long ago was it? He had no idea. That wasn't good. His wrists were chained to something, he finally realized,so he couldn't get up or, from the distance apart they were, use alchemy. On the floor, it's top about a foot higher than the top of his head, was a box. It was covered in a sheet. The colouring was like if a lime and a rare species of biolumenecient moss had a child, and then that child was dunked in something... Glowey? Ed wasn't thinking very clearly. A burst of sudden nausea was realized soon after. Ed fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. So much hurt...

He started hyperventilating. Or maybe this was normal? He didn't really think so. He giggled a bit at how worked up he was getting. That didn't help though. He was practically gasping for breath now. He thought he could remember being shot by something pointy. Maybe it was a tranquilizer. Maybe it wasn't adjusted to his weight and he had overdosed on it. Maybe... Or he could be sick. He had never really been this sick though. Winry had once, other people had, but never him or Al. _That's kinda... Cool_. He pieced together. How were thinking stuttering? Wait, that wasn't right! Were thinking stuttering? No, that was completly wrong! Objects started blurring together. He retched a bit. Some acid had come up, but Ed couldn't see it through the swirling dance the world had decided to perform for him. He did numbly feel it though. _So that's sorta what it's like for Al._ He managed to think, before drugs forced him back to sleep in a small puddle of his own bile.

When Ed awoke again, his face was damp, like he had just washed it. There was the familiar, comforting smell of chalk in the air, and he would have almost felt safe if there weren't the scents of fur from a few types of animals in the air along with the disquieting, all too familiar and recognizable metallic tang of blood that he had come to learn. The nausea and bile weren't there anymore, thank god, but his neck, he learned after looking up, was still just as intent on giving him hell as before.

On the subject of looking up, he sorta wished he hadn't. Some form of malicious, over saturated rainbow was apparently wrapping itself around a woman's body in an attempt to strangle her. Ed opted for staring at the ground. He bent his left arm in the most unnatural way his limb could manage as well to give an impression of weakness. After all, if an enemy underestimates you, you'll have all the more chances to kick their ass. The trick seemed to work with the woman. The moment he gasped out a weak " Wha... Where am I?", she whirled around on the heel of one of her lava hued stilettos. He didn't quite expect the answer he got to the "question". "Finally! I was getting bored." She went over to him, her heels clicking as she walked. "I took off your automail arm and leg you had." She told him as she leaned over him, her oversized blond pigtails irratating his face and making him blink. "They would've just made things more complicated then they need to be." Ed lay confused for a second. Then his eyes widen. The chalk. The covered box. The removal of more complicated elements. There was a transmutation in store for him, and from the smells of fur and blood, he could make an educated guess on what kind of transmutation it was.

When he looked down at the ground, the tiny section of transmutation circle he could see was familiar, and though he didn't recognize it exactly, he knew why. It was the circle he had seen in the Tucker household for making chimera. He recognized elements of it from the circle he had come to know so well from nightmares. His face was starting to get hot, a telltale warning of tears. "Now, before we start," He had to start thinking of something else. Like how in god's name he was going to stop this from happening. "There's someone you should meet." With mounting horror, (The woman turned around again) he realized that there was nothing he could do.(She began walking towards the box, the noise from her heels echoing in the small space.) With his arm and leg gone, ( _Click, click_ ) he was helpless to do anything. ( _Click, click_ ). He felt sick with his own inability to help anyone. ( _Click._ )

The sound of the woman's clicking stopped. Silence, for a few precious seconds, reigned, before being dethroned by the sound of heels once again clicking and long rusted wheels screeching. Underneath the scraping cacophony of metal, Ed could barely make out a squeaking noise. It could be an animal, a rodent maybe, panicking, or just the groaning of metal. The box was abruptly stopped half a foot away from his face to one last brief movememt of the symphony of metallic scrapings. When the echos died away, he was left with squeaking. There was no mistaking it now, just as there was no mistaking the pit that had just opened up in his stomach. He... He was hyperventilating again. "Don't be so worried about it." The woman told him as she unlocked a little door on the box Ed hadn't noticed before. "You'll see, it'll be fun!" **Fun**? How would this be fun in any way? He was about to be turned into a whatever-boy! The woman grabbed something. "Now, meet your new friend," She held up something small, carmel yellow and fluffy "Tedd!"

A squirrel boy. Ed thought with mounting horror. I'm going to be a fucking squirrel boy

* * *

IN A NEARBY CELL BLOCK. NO, NOT THAT CELL BLOCK. ANOTHER ONE.

Winry slowly half opened her eyes before deeply yawning. She must have gone on the train, judging by how sore she was. She tried to strech her legs. She couldn't. In an instant, her eyes snapped from tired squinting to full alertness. She was tied to a metal chair in a room who's hues had forsaken their right to call themselves blue. The chair was bolted to a wall near a door, and the wall was... Well, a wall, so she wasn't getting the chair off it. She'd say that the chair was a steel iron alloid, which was durable enough to be used in interior plating in automail, meaning that if she saw a blowtorch lying on the floor, she could probably get free. Oh, no blowtorch? How surprising. There went her grand, brilliant escape plan.

How did she get here? She had gone on a walk with Shao May in the forest, not doing anything dangerous. She hadn't seen anything that could contain _this_ pathetic attempt at a room.

"Wha... Where am I?" Winry's breath caught in her throat. Was that _Ed_ talking from behind the door? Really, there was no mistaking his voice, but she didn't want to risk too much of her composure if it was someone else. It might have been. That could happen. Maybe, just this once, he could not be in some sort of horrible danger... Oh, who was she kidding. It was certain, beyond doubt, that by some horrible twist of fate, the boy she was in love with had also been sedated and was in the room behind and to the right of her.

A familiar, higher voice answered Ed. "Finally! I was getting bored." Why did she recognize her voice? She'd never heard before. Wait, that wasn't entirely true. She could remember the voice saying " Aren't you just the cutest little panda? Who's a widdle cutie? You - OW! Come back here! You aren't supposed to be running!". Winry could guess why the woman would have said that. She felt relieved that Shao May had escaped this place. Whatever this place was. The woman started talking again. "I took off you the automail arm and leg you had." What?! This woman dared besmirch her beautiful babies? She would pay for this insult to her craftsmanship, preferably in cens or **blood**. "They'd just make things more complicated than they need to be." A thrill ran up Winry's spine. What would Ed's automail make more complicated? Anger had been pushed out of the way by terror, and now that was the case, Winry found that she preferred anger. "Now, before we start," Start what? A..A transmutation? No, that was just paranoia talking. Why would it be that? "There's someone you should meet." Why would she have thought have that even? There was no corralation between them, so-There was. There was something. On the edges of her memory, Winry remembered.

* * *

 _Winry watched as Ed carefully removed the leaves from twigs before putting them in a transmutation circle. The pair couldn't have been anymore than 7. "Ed, why are you snapping the leaves off the sticks?" She had asked. And Ed had answered "I don't want 'em to make the transmutation all weird." Then Winry had said "Oh. Can I help?". And Ed, ever the gentleman, had told her "Sure." And so they picked the leaves off of the small pieces of wood. Ed had made a little bird for Winry. They must have been in that forest for hours before Al found them and started to drag Ed away by the hand. Ed and Winry had cried as one "Stop it Al!" Al had said sorry. And then, by way of explaination, he had said " Stew." "Stew?" Ed repeated. "Stew!" Al had replied. By the time the three were out of the forest, they had taken up the chant of "Stew! Stew! Stew! Stew!" Pinako had looked to be on the very edges of her resistence to laughing, while Trisha had looked bemused at first before adding her voice to the cries of stew, leading her fellow Champions of Stew to their prize._

* * *

Winry blinked away the tears that had begun to form in her eyes. They always did when she thought of Ed and Al's mom. She hadn't meant to remember that much, but she knew that she had remembered the connection. But it could be anything. One clue did not a certainty make. And she hadn't even tried to think up other options, though she had a feeling that anything she could come up with wouldn't be any better. She listened closely to the other room. _Click, click, click._ What was that sound? The noise stopped for a moment, before taking up a different cry. _**SCREEEEEECH, SCREEEEECH.**_ The noise pierced the door, along with Winry's skull, for just long enough for her to pray for Ed's poor, unsuspecting eardrums before coming to a stop. It took a few more seconds for her own poor, unsuspecting eardrums to stop ringing. The moment it stopped, she heard a soft noise. _Squeak._ What was going on inside that room? She decided to risk calling out. "Ed?" No response. "Don't be so worried about it. You'll see, it'll be fun!" She called again. "Ed!" Even if she could be heard from this side of the door, she was cut off by "Now meet your new friend." She opened her mouth to call out another time."Tedd!"

Before Winry could process what she heard, more was added to it. "He has yellow fur, so he'll be a perfect match for you. And, in case you didn't notice, he's just the fluffiest little thing!" Then she had to process it. "NO!" She knew what was going to happen. She knew there was no way to stop it. Still she tried. As fast as she could, she aimed a kick at the door. She didn't know why she thought it could help, but she futily kept at it. She must have kicked it 50 times before her foot hurt too much to continue and she just listened. Ed was talking again. A brief sentence escaped, the firmness within it a miracle for how terrified he must be. "Stay the fuck away from me, you oversaturated god-complexing bitch!" Despite her worry, she cracked a small smile in the brief silence. Ed had always had a gift for making her feel better. (He would have gotten hit with her wrench a lot more if he hadn't.) The woman regained her bearings enough to angrily stammer for a few seconds "Bu... How are you coherent enough to... That's mean!" "Are you serious? That's mean? That's the best you can do? Honestly, that's pathe-" "SHUT UP!" Winry heard something slam against stone as she was blinded by light, though she called out to Ed all the more desperately. Then the horrible sounds of an animal crying out in pain. Then the soft cries, the quiet sounds of pain that she recognized from the surgeries. They were more painful then the animal's. Then, a brief sound she thought she would never hear.

The shortest yell of pain had escaped Ed's lips. And she could have gone an eternity without hearing it. She should have. In another moment, everything stopped. A doorknob creaked, with a murmer of "I could of sworn I heard something from over here." The door opened. A woman clothed in much too bright clothes came through. "Oh." A second passed as Winry looked around the woman into the room behind her. Ed was covered in fur "What did you do to Ed!" The woman stared at her like a deer caught in the headlights for another five seconds. _Swit._ Something sharp caught in Winry's arm. She tried to move her hand, but it was strapped to the chair, and everything was so heavy. Surely the chair hadn't been quite this soft before...

* * *

His head was resting in fur. Or at least he assumed it was fur, because that idea made a strange sort of sense based on the situation he remembered being in. A transmutation circle. The woman. The squirrel. The fucking squirrel. Who'd have guessed that a squirrel would be an essential part in the latest chapter of the slowly burning book that was his life? And Mom. He could have sworn he had heard Mom's voice calling his name throughout the whole process, beginning with her crying "No" when the woman talked about Tedd. He Ed began to shake, even in the warmth of the fur. He had thought that he was gonna die when he heard Mom. For the third time that day, Ed lifted his head.

For a second, he convinced himself that the caramel tail and black claws were detached completely from him. The second passed. He kept looking down. "Fuck." "Fullmetal, don't use that language. How many times do I have to tell you?" Ed gave himself a few seconds to do a double take before whirling around to see Roy Mustang, with... With dog ears. He blinked. Then he asked "Do you have any more of an idea of what's going on here than I do?" Roy cracked a smile, a smile that was somehow more genuine than his usual smirk. "Depends on how much of an idea you have. If expirence is anything to go on, you'll probably fall a little _short._ " The colonel hadn't realized what he said until it was too late.


End file.
